ARLINGTON, VA — Logan Thompson is used to being overlooked. After going undrafted out of the WHL, Thompson first played for Ontario’s Brock University before spending several seasons in the minors.
The Calgary native finally made his NHL debut in 2021 with the Vegas Golden Knights, but grew frustrated with his playing time and ultimately requested a trade. And despite a 2024-25 campaign for the Capitals that saw him rank fourth in Vezina voting, he knows much of the league doubts that he can replicate that success this season.
For Thompson, those snubs just serve as more fuel to prove his detractors wrong.
“I always feel like I’m a player that I don’t think a lot of people respect around the league,” he said Tuesday. “So for me it’s huge. I want to go out there and earn people’s respect this year and keep pushing, keep getting wins for the Washington Capitals.”
Thompson joined the Capitals in a draft-day trade last summer, dealt for a third-round pick after parts of four seasons in Vegas. Charlie Lindgren had appeared set to serve as the team’s starter for the upcoming season: he’d impressed with a breakout season of his own the year prior, while Thompson had spent much of his career playing second fiddle and had one year left on a league-minimum deal.
But after arriving in Washington, Thompson made himself impossible to ignore from day one, becoming the first goaltender in franchise history to win his first seven contests for the team. He finished the regular season with 26.0 goals saved above expected, good for third-best in the league; lost just six games in regulation (with a record of 31-6-6); and ranked in the top 10 in both goals against average (2.49) and save percentage (.910) among goaltenders with 25 or more games played.
The Capitals have rewarded Thompson for his efforts both on and off the ice. After alternating between Thompson and Lindgren for much of the season, head coach Spencer Carbery gave Thompson the starting role by the spring and into the playoffs, and the team inked him to a six-year extension worth $5.85 million per season in January.
Carbery indicated Thompson will return as the Capitals’ starter this season, though Lindgren will continue to play a significant role in the goaltending rotation. Whether he’s a full-time starter or not, however, Thompson says his mindset remains the same.
“That doesn’t change how I’m going to approach things,” he said. “Whenever my number is called, I want to go out there and be the best Logan Thompson I can be and hopefully give this team a chance to win every night.”
His quest for improvement was on display soon after his return to DC, with Thompson bringing his childhood goaltending coach Justin Cardinal to training camp to work with Capitals goaltending coach Scott Murray.
“I think it’s good to get to another perspective,” Thompson said then. “[Cardinal has] worked with me since I was nine or eight years old, so it’s just good to start from scratch again. I think it helps Scotty maybe see things that he doesn’t, or maybe an easier way to kind of get through to me. Sometimes I can be a little boneheaded, but it’s good to have two sets of goalie coaches here.”
While Thompson’s role on the Capitals has continued to grow, he’s garnered far less recognition outside of DC. He was not among the finalists for the 2025 Vezina Trophy, potentially because his comparatively limited 43-game workload, and received just one second-place vote and four third-place votes.
Team Canada has also repeatedly passed Thompson over, both for last season’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament and for its National Teams Orientation Camp ahead of the 2026 Milan Olympics. His relationship with the team’s coaching staff may have contributed to the snub: Team Canada assistant coaches Bruce Cassidy and Pete DeBoer both served as Thompson’s head coach in Vegas before he requested a trade.
Thompson says he has talked to Team Canada’s management about the decision, but his primary goal now is to demonstrate his abilities through strong NHL play.
“People have their opinions on that,” he said of not receiving an invite to the orientation camp. “I’ve spoken to (director of player personnel Kyle Dubas) and (general manager Doug Armstrong) there with Team Canada. My plan is just going out there and having a good year with the Washington Capitals, and hopefully, good things happen.
“They reached out to me before Team Canada named that pre-Olympic roster, so I’ve been in communication with them. I’m not worried about it. I’m just trying to — my main focus is here with the Washington Capitals, and hopefully something good happens.”
The chip on Thompson’s shoulder is hardly unique among the Capitals, with the team’s desire to prove itself becoming a driving narrative ahead of the 2025-26 season. MoneyPuck gave the Capitals just a 54.1% chance to make the playoffs, while The Athletic projects the Capitals will finish 14th in the league with an expected 93.8 points — a 17.2-point regression from their Eastern Conference-leading 111 points in 2024-25.
Thompson believes Washington’s quiet offseason is to blame for some of those predictions, a factor he wholeheartedly rejects.
“We were pretty quiet this year in free agency,” he said. “I think a lot of people maybe don’t think that was enough — just because we didn’t go and get that superstar name that was available, that we’re no longer a good team. I think that’s the opposite. I think that we didn’t need to make any changes this year.”
Much of the skepticism also derives from just how many things went right for the Capitals last season — Thompson’s success included. Players like Aliaksei Protas, Tom Wilson, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Jakob Chychrun, and Connor McMichael all had career-best seasons, raising doubts about whether they can sustain that level of play going forward. The team’s captain, Alex Ovechkin, will play his 21st NHL season with Father Time on his heels. And Thompson’s success has a limited track record compared to his prior years as a backup.
Thompson doesn’t pretend he hasn’t seen the critiques, both of himself and of his team. But whether outsiders believe in him or not, he has no plans of slowing down.
“We see the noise,” he said, “and you try not to let it affect your game. I think if anything, it’s just more motivation. But I’m going to go out there and do our thing and hopefully good things happen.”
